title: Understanding the relationship between nutritional knowledge, self-efficacy, and self-concept of high-school students suffering from overweight.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Adolescents' overweight problems have been paid much attention due to their significant increase in recent decades in developed countries. Poor eating patterns subsequently affect their self-efficacy and self-concept. Therefore, paying attention to the nutritional knowledge of overweight students in this period is essential. This study examines the relationship between self-efficacy, self-concept, and nutritional knowledge of overweight students in the city of Isfahan.
  
  
  METHODS
  The 140 overweight students who participated in this descriptive, analytical study with were randomly selected from one of five areas of Isfahan city in the year 2011-2012. Questionnaires for data collection in this study included demographic form, nutrition knowledge, Cooper Smith self-esteem, and general self-efficacy questionnaire. Data were analyzed by ANOVA, regression, and Pearson's correlation coefficient with statistical package in social sciences version 18.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There was a significant correlation between whole nutritional knowledge and self-efficacy (r = 0.29, P > 0.001) and self-concept (r = 0.26, P = 0.002). There was a significant correlation between self-efficacy and self-concept (r = 0.3, P = 0.001). Furthermore, in the selection of food section there was no significant correlation with the self-concept (r = 0.147, P = 0.083). Regression analysis between self-concept, self-efficacy, family dimension, father's education, mother's education, father's occupation, mother's occupationa and income with nutrition knowledge showed that these eight variables explain 17.7% of the variance in health behaviors totally.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  By conducting this study, and revealing the direct relationship between nutritional knowledge, self-concept, and self-efficacy, we could conclude that if nutritional knowledge of overweight students is promoted, this factor would lead to an increase their self-concept and self-efficacy in order to adopt healthy behaviors and have the expected healthy eating and healthy life-style.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Education and Promotion, School of Health, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
authors.forename: Leila
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Rabiei
authors.forename: Gholam Reza
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Sharifirad
authors.forename: Leila
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Azadbakht
authors.forename: Akbar
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hassanzadeh
keywords: Knowledge; nutrition; overweight; self-concept; self-efficacy; student